PowerPoint Tips
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Select Several Objects at Once in PowerPoint
If you want to select several objects on a slide, click at the top left and drag a rectangle around all of the objects. They will all be instantly selected. You must have the objects completely in the rectangle - if an object is only partially in the rectangle it will not be selected.

The Gray Area in PowerPoint
When you are working on a slide, sometimes you might have problems deciding what to place and where to place it. Rather than deleting elements and recreating them, you can move them off of the slide. Zoom your slide to 50%. You can drag text boxes, autoshapes, custom animations, etc., to the gray area surrounding your slide. Elements floating in the gray won't have an effect on your presentation. One exception to this is the speaker icon that indicates you've connected a sound with the slide. Sounds set to occur automatically will play even if the speaker icon is in the gray area.

Quickly Enter Text into PowerPoint AutoShapes
To enter text into a selected AutoShape, just start typing and PowerPoint immediately inserts the text into the shape.

Take a Break During a PowerPoint Slide Show
When you want to stop for a break in your presentation without losing your place in the slide show, just press the lowercase B key or press the Period (.). This will make the screen go black, and if it is a self-running presentation, it will pause. When you are ready to resume the show, press either key again, and you will start right where you left off.

Draw AutoShapes From Center
You can draw various shapes in your documents by selecting the AutoShape you'd like to draw using the Drawing toolbar, then by clicking and dragging in your document to draw it. When you click and drag to draw an AutoShape, Word plants one corner of the shape in the location you clicked on, and then it draws the rest of the shape in the direction you drag. This makes it difficult to estimate where your AutoShape's center will end up when you've finished drawing it. As an alternative, you can draw your AutoShapes from the center instead of from the corner. To do so, select an AutoShape. The insertion point changes to crosshairs. Next, position the top of the crosshairs where you want the center of your AutoShape to end up. Then, hold down the Ctrl key as you click and drag to draw the AutoShape.

Create Movie-Style Crawling Credits in PowerPoint
1. In a PowerPoint presentation, create a new slide for credits or any other list that you want to scroll from bottom to top.
2. Type your credits or other text. Don't worry about text running off the bottom of the slide.
3. Right-click the text, and choose Custom Animation.
4. In the Custom Animation task pane, click Add Effect, Entrance, More Effects, scroll down and choose Credits. Click OK.
5. Click Play to see how the effect will look on-screen.

Using PowerPoint’s Transparent Feature
If you want your background to show though an object, you can make the object transparent. To do this:
1. Select the object that you want to make semitransparent.
2. If it is a graphic, go to the Draw menu and click Ungroup. Click Yes in the box that appears. Go back to the Draw menu and click Ungroup again. Immediately return to Draw and choose Group.
3. Right-click the object. Choose Format Object. Click the Colors and Lines tab.
4. Drag the Transparency slider to choose the amount of tranparency you need. Click Preview in the bottom right corner. Click OK when finished.
5. If you are making a text box transparent, skip step 2 and choose Format Placeholder in step 3.

Auto-Fit Text in Placeholder
One of the new features in PowerPoint 2000 is auto-fit text in a text placeholder. If you're typing in a placeholder (for a slide title, body text, or bulleted lists) and you have a few extra words or lines in a placeholder that won't fit on the slide, PowerPoint automatically changes the size of the text to fit the slide. To turn off this feature, choose Tools, Options. Click on the Edit tab and deselect the Auto-fit Text To Text Placeholder check box.

Create a Self Running PowerPoint Presentation
To create a self running PowerPoint show from any PowerPoint presentation, open the presentation and choose Save As. Under files of type, select PowerPoint Show (.pps) and click OK. The show will now run automatically whenever it is opened on a computer that has PowerPoint or a PowerPoint viewer. Press the Esc key to stop the show.

Create Oval Pictures in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
1. Use the Drawing Toolbar to create an oval shape.
2. Click on the down arrow next to the Fill Color button (Paint Can).
3. Choose Fill Effects, and then choose the Picture tab at the top.
4. Click the Select Picture button, and then find the photo or graphic you want to use.
5. Double-click the file; click OK, and your picture will fill the center of your oval shape.
6. You can then move and resize the picture just like any graphic.

From Word to PowerPoint
To quickly create slides in PowerPoint, first create a text outline in Word using either Outline View or the Style list. Then go to File, Send To...Microsoft PowerPoint. PowerPoint will open and each heading of your outline will be placed on a separate slide as a title with any subheadings as a bulleted list below the title. You can then add graphics, backgrounds, animation and sounds to complete your presentation.

Mouse Pointer in PowerPoint Presentations
Have you ever found yourself giving a presentation using PowerPoint and wishing for a mouse pointer? While viewing the presentation, press the letter A and the pointer will appear. To make it disappear, press the letter A again.

Create Custom Bullets in PowerPoint
You can import your own graphics to make bullets in PowerPoint. Let say you want to use either the SISD logo or the SHS bearcat graphic as your bullet. First click here to save one of these graphics. Then, select the text you want to make into bullet points. Next, choose Format, Bullets And Numbering from the main menu. In the Bullets And Numbering dialog box, click the Picture button, and then click the Import button in the Picture Bullet dialog box. Navigate to your saved logo file and click Add. You'll notice the logo has been added to the bullets available in the Picture Bullet window. Select your logo graphic and click OK to apply it. The bullet graphics you import will also be available to you in Word.

Using Only Part of a Picture in PowerPoint
In PowerPoint, you may find a picture you like but only wish to use part of it. To use only a portion of a picture, you must first insert it into your slide. Then, select the picture you want to edit and click Ungroup from the Draw menu. If it asks you to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing object, click Yes. Then click Draw, Ungroup again. Next, click somewhere on the slide away from the picture, and then click on an object in the picture you wish to delete and press Delete. Delete as many pieces of the picture as you want.

Hiding Slides in PowerPoint
Sometimes when you create a PowerPoint presentation you might not want to show all slides to all of the audiences. To hide a slide, click on the View menu in the toolbar and choose Slide Sorter. Right-click on the slide you want to hide and choose Hide Slide. To show the slide again, right-click on it in Slide Sorter view and choose Hide Slide again.

Creating Signs in PowerPoint
You can easily create signs using PowerPoint slides. With PowerPoint open, go to File, Page Setup. Click the down-arrow next to the Slides Sized For list box. Select Letter Paper. Adjust the Width and Height if necessary. Under Orientation, choose Portrait in the Slides section. Click OK and create your sign.

Aligning PowerPoint Objects
On a PowerPoint slide, you can easily align objects so they are in the basic category of left, right, or center. To do this, click the Draw button. It’s located near the bottom-left of your screen. Select Align or Distribute. Click Relative To Slide at the bottom of the list. Then, select one or more objects. Click the Draw button again and select Align or Distribute. Then, make your choice and the object(s) will be automatically aligned.

Select Multiple Objects in PowerPoint
To select multiple objects on a slide, hold down the left mouse button and drag a rectangle around all of the objects you wish to select. A dotted-line rectangle is drawn and everything in the rectangle is selected once you release the mouse button. You must have the object completely in the rectangle - if an object is only partially in the rectangle it will not be selected.

Easily Add Slides from Old Files into New Presentations
To insert a slide from a different file, go to the Insert menu, and choose Slides from Files. When the Slide Finder window opens, click the Find Presentation tab. Click the Browse button to locate the file that contains the slide or slides you need in the new presentation.

Once a file is selected, the bottom boxes will fill with previews of the slides. To insert slides into your new presentation, select them from the display. (Remember: the Shift key will select consecutive slides and the Ctrl key will select non-consecutive slides when each is clicked).

When you have selected all the slides you need, click the Insert button. Click the Close button when finished.

Animate GIFs in PowerPoint
An animated GIF is a moving image. You can insert animated GIF files into your PowerPoint presentations. There are collections of these on the Internet which you can save the same way you save other graphics. To play an animated GIF picture to see how it looks, you must switch to Slide Show view.